Transient man suspected of hate crime against employee of downtown Bellingham business
A transient man is suspected of a hate crime after he allegedly used racial slurs and threatened a Black employee of a downtown Bellingham business Wednesday afternoon.
Bellingham Police booked Joseph V. Ryan, 61, into Whatcom County Jail on suspicion of two counts of felony harassment and one count of malicious harassment — a hate crime offense in Washington state. Jail records show Ryan is being held in lieu of $5,000 bail.
Officers were called at 3:55 p.m. June 9 to the JJ’s convenience store on Holly Street for the report of an altercation in front of the store, Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
One of the store’s employees told police that Ryan had confronted her when she was attempting to remove another person who had shoplifted from the store, Murphy reported. Ryan reportedly saw the exchange and was upset by it.
Ryan attempted to insert himself into the incident, Murphy said, and it was then that he spoke to and used derogatory racial slurs against the employee, Murphy reported.
The employee attempted to get Ryan to leave the front of the store, sounding an air horn as a distraction, according to Murphy, but Ryan instead responded by another racial slur and a threat to break the employee’s jaw.
To defend herself, the employee sprayed Ryan with pepper spray, Murphy reported, and a second employee stepped in to help her with Ryan and the shoplifter. The second employee told police that Ryan also threatened to break his jaw, according to Murphy, and video surveillance caught some of the altercation between Ryan and the employees.
It was the second time officers had contact with Ryan on Wednesday, Murphy reported, as at approximately 6:20 a.m. he was cited on suspicion of fourth-degree assault after he allegedly assaulted a staff member at Base Camp. In that incident, Ryan reportedly was found drinking on the Base Camp property and told to stop and allegedly responded by grabbing the staff member’s glasses, scratching their face in the process. Ryan was cooperative with officers who responded to that incident, Murphy reported.
